Architecture Constructed explores the central, open secret of
architecture: the long-suppressed conflict between arche and
teckton-between those who design, and those who build. This unresolved
tension has a centuries-old history in the discipline, persisting
through Classical and Renaissance times to the present day, and yet it
has rarely been addressed through a historical and theoretical lens.
In this book, acclaimed architectural theorist Mark Jarzombek examines
this tension head-on, and uses it to rethink the nature of the history
of architecture. He reveals architecture to be a troubled,
interconnected realm, incomplete and unstable, where labor, craft, and
occupation are the 'invisible' complements to the work of the architect.
Erudite, entertaining, and full of surprising and thought-provoking
juxtapositions and challenges, Architecture Constructed is packed with
novel insights into the internal conflicts and paradoxes of
architecture, and is rich with examples from modern and contemporary
practice-including Mies, Koolhaas, Potrc, Hadid, Bawa, Diller +
Scofidio-which demonstrate how contemporary architecture inhabits the
very same tensions that have riven the discipline since the days of
Alberti.
This provocative book will stimulate conversations among students,
researchers, and designers, as it pushes the boundaries on how we define
the professional discipline of architecture and overturns entrenched
assumptions about the nature of architectural history and theory.
